1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to trading card games and, more particularly, to a computer device for implementing a trading card gage and a control method therefor, a program executed by the computer device, and a controller, a system, and a game card which are related thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, trading cards on which sports players' images and characteristics are printed (e.g., baseball cards) traded between card buffs. The value of such cards depends on a variety of factors, including their rarity. In addition, recently, fighting card games using cards on which images and characteristics of cartoon characters, etc., are printed have grown in popularity. In such fighting card games, victory or defeat is often determined by whether a game player has rare cards, which cards typically have having high offensive or defensive power.
Game players trade (or exchange) their cards, and create their own decks of cards by purchasing sets (combinations of rare cards and ordinary cards) of cards sold by card game companies. The card games are characterized in that the cards themselves, especially rare cards, can have high commercial values. Also, on the video game market, similar fighting card games have been developed and marketed, and rare cards can be electronically traded in a video game between game players.
As described above, the card game market consists of two types. A conventional card game market for actual cards and a card game market for virtual cards in video games.
The above-described conventional technology has a problem in that the card game market cannot be expanded since cards collected in conventional card games cannot be used in card games of the video game type.
Another problem is that if the collected cards can be used in the card games of the video game type, their commercial values may decrease unless recording (copying) of them is limited.
Also, if the collected cards can be used in the card games of the video game type, their commercial values may decreases unless the use thereof is confirmed after recording them.
Further, if the collected cards can be used in the card games of the video game type and the use thereof is not confirmed after recording them, by continuously using a single card in a limitless number of video game machines, the rarity of the card can be substantially decreased and the card and each game machine cannot be cooperatively operated so that it is difficult to create a unified game world.
In addition, if the collected cards cannot be used in the card games of the video game type, it is impossible to set them to have differences. Consequently, their commercial values decrease.